Head Start Programs by County

Mouse over the map to see county names, then click on a county to see program information.

Early Head Start

Early Head Start is the free, early, continuous, intensive, and comprehensive child development and family support program for low-income families with children from birth to age three. Services are provided on a year round basis to enhance the physical, social, emotional, and intellectual development of infants and toddlers and pregnant women. Parents’ efforts to fulfill their parental roles and move towards self-sufficiency is supported by the Early Head Start’s program design.

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East Coast Migrant Head Start

East Coast Migrant Head Start is a free, comprehensive, developmental program that provides an array of services to migrant and seasonal farmworker children and their families. The program serves infants, toddlers, and preschool aged children. The purpose of the Migrant Head Start is to prevent the children from being cared for in the fields or left in the care of very young siblings while parents are working.

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Indian Nation Head Start

Indian Natin Head Start is a free, comprehensive, developmental program that supports the rich, diverse and distinct Indian language, heritage, and legacy for American Indian preschool children ages three to five and their families. The integration of language and culture into the curriculum and program goals is key to the program providing quality services to the children and their families.

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Head Start Collaboration Office

As noted in the Head Start Act, all states and two territories host a Head Start Collaboration Office. Funded by Office of Head Start these offices are located in state agencies or state designated sights to “facilitate collaboration among Head Start agencies and agencies that carry out activities designed to benefit low income children from birth to school entry and their families”. These offices provide a structure and process for the Office of Head Start to work with state agencies and local entities to leverage common interest around children and their families. Collaboration Offices assist in formulating, implementing and improving state and local policy and practice.

Mary Lynn Diggs serves as the South Carolina Director; Wanda Davis is the Program Assistant. The South Carolina Head Start Collaboration Office is located at the South Carolina Department of Social Services. The state works in conjunction with a state Head Start Collaboration Committee for oversight with/for this grant. In addition to the activity listing, this office maintains an up-to-date directory of South Carolina Head Start grantees and conducts a South Carolina Head Start Census in December & May of each year.

Collaboration Activities and Partnerships:

Disabilities Agreement Update

Services to Homeless

Pre-K Alignment

Head Start Awareness

Family Literacy

Technical Assistance

TEACH

NAEYC/SCAEYC

Articulation task Force

Center for Child Care Career Development (CCCCD) Task Force

Extended Day Agreement

Infant/Toddler Training

Home Visitation

Foster Care/Child Welfare

Early Childhood Comprehensive System (EPSDT, Medicaid)

Oral Health Coalition

Military Families Programs

Family Violence Prevention

Fatherhood Initiative

Disaster Preparedness

Healthy Living

The Head Start Collaboration grant allows for website partnerships with the Head Start, a joint newsletter, strategic planning assistance, forums & work group and state training planning and execution. The South Carolina Head Start Collaboration Office is one of the first of 12 collaboration Offices funded. This year we are in our 22nd year of funding in South Carolina.

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South Carolina Head Start Health Network

The Health Network was established in 1997. It is an affiliate of the SC Head Start Association. The purpose is to strengthen all Head Start Programs by providing information, identifying needs, developing strategies to meet the needs through building partnerships and collaborations with local, state, and federal resources.

Goals and Objectives: The goal of the South Carolina Head Start Health Network is to serve as a communication link between Head Start, local/state agencies and the Regional/National Offices to enhance the quality of health service delivery for children and families throughout South Carolina.

For more information, please contact Lillian Walker at (843) 309-3192 (office), or by e-mail at lwalker@peedeecap.org. Network meets on October 19, 2016, and January 18, April 19, July 19, and October 18, 2017.

Increase awareness of the critical role in which the Head Start Health Services Program plays in promoting the quality of life for children and families.

Establish community partnerships for the delivery of quality health services.

To provide South Carolina Head Start Program children, families and staff access to quality health services.

Encourage families to advocate health services for their children during child’s enrollment and after leaving the Head Start Program.

Child Advocacy Fund

In the state of South Carolina, every dollar counts . . .

The Child Advocacy Fund (CAF) campaign supports advocacy activities conducted by our state and regional associations to move forward our legislative agendas at the state and national levels. Collectively, we can gain and exercise power to affect legislation and public policies impacting Head Start children, families, staff, and communities throughout South Carolina.

We are encouraging each program to actively participate in our state-wide campaign effort. At least half of our state campaign proceeds are retained by our State Association, the other half is sent to our Region IV Head Start Association in support of regional advocacy efforts. Our State Goal is 100% support from all programs (staff, children, friends & partners) – $34,000 (half of our allotted goal is estimated at $13,500). Our ultimate goal is to achieve $67,000 which represents five dollars for every child funded enrollment slot in the state of South Carolina, not inclusive of staff, friends and partners.

Please get involved today. To learn more or to get involved in your local or state campaign, contact our SCSHS Association, Inc.

All campaign proceeds are used to support state advocacy activities, not the association operating budget.

Early Head Start Child Care Partnerships

The South Carolina State Head Start Association is pleased to announce our participation in the Early Head Start Child Care Partnership program. This program is designed to foster valuable partnerships between Early Head Start and child care providers, increasing the number and quality of learning opportunities for infants and toddlers.

This program increases access to high-quality, full-day, full-year child care, including family child care, for low-income working families. The program also supports the development of infants and toddlers through strong relationship-based experiences and prepares them for the transition into Head Start and preschool.

Enrolled EHS-CCP children are eligible for direct benefits such as home visits, health tracking and follow-up, and individualized family support services.

The EHS-CCP program brings together the strengths of child care and EHS programs. Child care centers and family child care providers respond to the needs of working families by offering flexible and convenient full-day/full-year services. In addition, child care providers have experience providing care that is strongly grounded in the cultural, linguistic, and social needs of the families and their local communities.

Through the EHS-CCP program, child care centers and family child care providers have access to resources to provide the comprehensive services needed to support better outcomes for the nation’s most vulnerable children. EHS is a research-based program that emphasizes the importance of responsive and caring relationships to support the optimal development of infants and toddlers. EHS provides comprehensive family-centered services that adhere to the Head Start Program Performance Standards (HSPPS) to support high-quality learning environments. Integrating EHS comprehensive services and resources into the array of traditional child care and family child care settings creates new opportunities to improve outcomes for infants, toddlers, and their families.

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Our Vision

Our vision is to be the voice for children and their families in South Carolina. We strive to build first-class learning opportunities that are developmentally and culturally relevant for all South Carolina children.